chapter 8

Communities of Learning seems to be the catch-phrase that is going around in education circles. Though there are a number of ways in which collaborative learning and cooperative learning can benefit students I think that there needs to be a balance of collaborative or cooperative learning and learning that is done independently. I don't want to sound heretical but I think that the traditional view of cognition does have some merit to it. I think it is important and necessary that educators critically think about ways to incorporate both views of cognition and learning (individual and social). Having too much of one or the other doesn't seem, at least to me, to be the best approach to teaching students.